food from a special part of Italy.

For the unfamiliar, a country's cuisine is not limited to one particular place. Many regional delicacies go to make up the flavour that is Italy, and the Bermuda College last week had one special Italian chef here conducting classes in the specialties of her part of Italy -- Venice.

Chef Fulvia Sesani taught the intricacies of Venetian cuisine until yesterday at the College's South Hall. There were three classes in all, and each night featured a different demonstration.

Chef Sesani has been featured in many culinary magazines including Gourmet, and has been a guest on the internationally famous cookery show, "The Frugal Gourmet.'' Born in Venice, Chef Sesani says: "Venetian cuisine is generally cold foods, because it originally had to be taken on ships.'' Venice is a town long associated with the sea, as its famous canals attest. "So on board,'' Chef Sesani says, "it was impossible to cook or keep cooked food.'' Many of the dishes are therefore seafood dominated, and even then there was a hierarchy in food preparation. For instance, one dish, is made with three kinds of fish, and then your social station dictated what kind of fish you ate! "One certain dish was made with three kinds of fish: sardine, limanda or sole,'' Chef Sesani says with a laugh. "The poor people ate the sardines, the middle class ate the li manda -- a fish similar to a sole, and the upper class ate the sole itself. The fish that you ate indicated your social level.'' Chef Sesani herself started in a field totally foreign to cooking. "I was a pharmacist in a hospital. But after 1968, I decided that I didn't want to work there. I studied cooking in France and Thailand, and I now have my own cooking school. At any one time I have from eight to 14 students, who come from all over the world.'' GOURMET DELIGHT -- Venetian Chef Mrs. Fulvia Sesani was at the Bermuda College to teach cooking from her special part of Italy.